Lester Holt stays out of the way

Lester Holt was on an island on Monday night. And for most of the first presidential debate, he stayed there, letting the battleships of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump shoot their missiles at one another.

It made for some memorable exchanges between Trump and Clinton, matched in close-up on most networks. For some debate watchers, that’s what they want their moderators to do: say "go" and let them run. But it also left some gaps where viewers probably expected sharp questions.

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There was no probing of Trump’s wall with Mexico, and vow to get the Mexicans to pay for it, or the Republican nominee’s ban on Muslims entering the country. And he barely prodded Clinton to explain her private email server in a question so gently worded that she was able to dispatch the issue with a few taut sentences.

The Clinton Foundation? Wasn’t discussed; neither was the Benghazi attack.

Few moderators have faced such intense scrutiny in the days leading up to the debate as Holt did, with Clinton’s allies demanding he serve as a fact-checker and Trump’s backers insisting that he allow the candidates to have their say.

Before the network broadcasts began, Holt seemed to reveal his choice, telling the audience he wanted to “facilitate” the conversation between “just the two of them.”

Holt is often seen as understated. His arrival on the national stage was under the radar, as he quietly assumed the NBC anchor chair while Brian Williams’ career was careening to a halt, removed as anchor of “Nightly News” over allegations he exaggerated his experience covering the Iraq war.

But during the debate, that understated approach sometimes led to the candidates, especially Trump, rolling over his questions, with Holt at one point admitting that they were far behind schedule.

It started early, during the first segment about the economy. Holt asked Trump how he specifically will help put money back in the pocket of Americans. Trump offered few specifics, veering into criticism of Clinton’s decades of public service without improving trade agreements.

Holt tried to interrupt but Trump kept rolling. He managed, a few seconds later, to follow up, pressing for specifics. But the end of the first segment would lead some critics on Twitter to ask “Where’s Lester?"

"Apparently Lester Holt went to the bathroom, way down the hall, and only one urinal is available and there is a line,” joked National Review writer Jim Geraghty in a tweet.

As Clinton and Trump sparred over debate and taxes, jabbing one another over and over again, Holt kept trying to jump in.

"Let me get you to pause right there,” he said as Trump was claiming Clinton was going to “approve one of the biggest tax increases."

"Lester, that can't be left to stand,” Clinton shot back, one of several times she asked Holt to “turn back the clock” or step in as Trump steamrolled through questions.

When Trump continuously interrupted Clinton during her answers, Holt would at most offer a pleading,"This is Secretary Clinton's two minutes, please."

But Holt’s understatement didn’t mean he was completely walked over. At different points, Holt pushed back against both candidates.

"Last week you said we have to do everything possible to improve policing to go right at implicit bias. Do you believe police are implicitly biassed against black people?” Holt asked Clinton.

And as the debate went on, he became more engaged and pushed back harder against Trump, on his birtherism, Iraq War support and his taxes.

When Trump tried to assert again, falsely, that he was always against the Iraq war, Holt was sure to not step into the same problems his colleague Matt Lauer, who let Trump’s claim he didn’t support the Iraq war slide.

Initially, Holt did not interrupt when Trump barked “Wrong” as Clinton said he supported the war. But a few moments later, he came back.

“The record shows otherwise,” Holt said, later referring to Trump’s 2002 interview with Howard Stern, which Trump himself then later said that in the interview with Stern said he said "who knows."

The reaction from the media and pundits was mixed, though mostly positive.

“[Holt] provided some realtime fact checking but let Trump go off on tangents and repeat too many proven lies,” said Washingotn Post Media columnist Margaret Sullivan, giving holt a “B-minus” grade. "[Holt] didn't make himself the story, and was dignified, if medium-weak and sometimes absent."

Former CNN Washington Bureau Chief Frank Sesno offered: "I think Holt has done an excellent job. Has been firm and fair, called Trump on statements more than Hillary but spent most of his efforts steering the conversation / debate to the two candidates.”

“Lester Holt interrupted Mr. Trump more, he followed up with Mr. Trump more, he was much hard on Mr. Trump,” complained Trump senior advisor Boris Epshteyn. "Lester Holt, to a degree, succumbed to the pressure form the left wing media and the Democrats after Matt Lauer moderated the forum."

Hugh Hewitt, the conservative talk show host, didn’t seem to agree.

"Conservatives should agree @LesterHoltNBC did a very fine job moderating. He pushed on birther issue and Iraq war but gave plenty of time,” he tweeted.

Trump himself seemed perfectly happy with Holt’s performance.

"I thought Lester Holt did a great job. ... I thought the questions were very fair,” Trump told reporters in the spin room after the debate.